Introducing Democratic Practices For Work And Learning In Canada And Economic South

Reading: Spencer, B., & Kelly, J. (2013). Work and learning: An introduction. Toronto: Thompson Educational Publishing.

1. “Explain why work and learning in Canada and the ‘economic south’ could benefit from taking democratic practices into account.”
2. “Community and worker-owned co-operatives provide the best hope for worker empowerment and democratic practices.”

Canada's Capitalism System and Economic South

Introduction

The purpose of this essay is to discuss the reason behind the improvement of work and learning in Canada and economic South. One such reasons is taking democratic practices into account. The essay aims in discussing the concept of economic south and the need for introducing democratic practices into work and learning experience in Canada. It has been observed that in Canada, the capitalism system is mainly followed, where, people invests capital for business, goods and the services that are mainly offered to the customers. The term democratic practices refers to the process by which a country’s citizens can work together even if they disagree. The essay will mostly evaluate the process by which the work and learning in Canada could benefit from taking democratic practices in account.

As mentioned earlier, Canada mostly follows the capitalism system.  The owners of the goods mainly recruit, hire and pay the workers for the production of the goods and services, while the investors make a profit of it.  The main feature of capitalism include that capital is privately owned and controlled and the capitalists need to pay the workers a wage or a salary. The goal of capitalism is to create a profit from the sale of goods in a competitive or free market (Spencer & Kelly, 2013). However, in this system, the profits are taken by the owners. Here comes the concept of economic south. The concept of economic south is needed to be understood in this context. The term is related to the countries, where the production of goods and services are moved where it can be completed in a lower labor cost with minimum labor cost with minimum labor laws (Lessons from Cambodia’s Apparel Industry, 2019). The companies mainly choose to maximize the profits associated with the production of goods by minimizing the labor cost. Furthermore, with the economic south, the organizations are able to enjoy free trade and less interference from the government. Economic south however, can be a major reason behind the increasing gap between the rich and the poor countries.

There are a number of negative aspects associated with the economic south. One of which is that, it only improves the economic condition of the rich. Examples can be drawn from the Rana Plaza Factory disaster. There are a number of factors behind the collapse of this factory. The Rana Plaza building in Dhaka, Bangladesh had five garment factories. The disaster claimed life of almost 1132 people and injured more than 2500 people.  The main factor behind the collapse in the hazardous working environment (Keith, 2015). This is a direct effect of economic south. Similar in the case for spectrum sweater factory collapse. The main point of argument is that whether the use of democratic practices could have helped in eliminating these issues. No intervention of law in the works associated with the economic south is one of the major reasons behind the issues faced by the labors and the workers.

Issues with Economic South

Another important thing that is extracted from the Rana Plaza Fact factory or spectrum sweater factory collapse is that the little measures are taken on the safety of the workers. Furthermore, it is very difficult to fetch help from the global brands when any such disasters occur (Garoutte & McCarthy-Gilmore, 2014). Access to any sort of financial compensation or support to the family members of the deceased or injured workers from the international companies becomes a difficulty in absence of any laws or regulations (Hall, Jackson & Tandon,2016). If democratic practices were in force in these economic south, then the families of the deceased and injured workers at Rana Plaza or Spectrum Sweater factory would not have to wait long for compensation or help.

Similarly the issues associated with the learning system or the capitalism system that is followed in Canada could have been controlled or addressed with the help of appropriate laws and regulation. Therefore, the need of introducing democratic practices in work and learning in Canada and Economic South is extreme (Siddiqui & Uddin, 2016). With the presence of a concrete law, it is possible to get an easy access to some form of financial compensation or support to the dependent family members.

Therefore, it can be concluded that certain amendments in work and learning in Canada and economic south is required. The amendments in the labor code requires that the employers to insure themselves against any sorts of liability. Although these amendments are now made for the labors and workers, no such obligations were set during the collapse of Rana Plaza. Despite the losses that are suffered by the victims of Rana Plaza, no compensation were paid in application to the labor code.

Participatory and democratic views relate to the new human resource management strategies. The democratic practices can help in elimination of the discussed problems. In context of learning or working in Canada, several reforms are needed to be brought in Canadian economic policy (Williams, 2016). Moreover, the Canadian economic policy should shift in order to better assist in the development of the workers co-operative.

In this context, the strengths of the Mondragon Cooperatives can be mentioned. This cooperative is developed by the people, for the people (Zeuli, 2016). The basic principle of this cooperative is that it is committed to community and aims in improving the competitiveness of the business. Mondragon now consists of over 103,000 people along with 120 co-operatives.

Benefits of Democratic Practices

The major strength of this cooperatives is that even the risks are shared among the members of the cooperatives along with the profits.

Conclusion

The essay discusses the needs of introducing democratic practices for learning and working in Canada and economic south. The concept of economic south is further discussed in this essay. In this context, the Rana Plaza collapse incident is discussed and the effect of absence of any particular law is evaluated. Therefore, democratic practices are considered to be one of the major needs for work and learning in Canada. Furthermore, the strength of cooperative environment is discussed in the essay.

Introduction

The aim of the essay is to discuss whether the community and worker owned cooperatives provide best hope in worker empowerment and democratic practices. In this context, it is essential to identify the benefits or the advantages associated with the community and worker owned cooperatives. The benefits of the community and the cooperatives owned by the workers can be evaluated on basis of the example by Mondragon. One of the most significant benefits of co Cooperatives is that it promotes team work. Team work can be a solution to certain major problems. The essay evaluates the process by which the community and worker owned cooperatives can provide best hope for empowering and encouraging the workers.

The community and worker co owned cooperatives can work in favor of the worker empowerment. The main aim of cooperatives is to share the responsibility of working along with the risks and issues related to business. Researchers prove that the co-operatives in Canada and United States of America has achieved great success with the cooperatives. In Italy, as well, there are a number of worker-managed organizations that are ensuring great success.

An example can be cited in this case The Mandragon Corporation, which was founded in the year 1956 in Spain had been operating in a co-operative environment. The Mondragon was mainly founded on basis of the worker’s ownership and control. The control began with the existing workers. The primary cooperative of Mandragon was mainly the production while that of the secondary cooperative constitutes the bank and the financial institutions. Mandragon has therefore been a great success and is possibly the best hope for the worker empowerment as well as the democratic practices.

The rise of community and worker owned cooperative sector plays an important role in today’s economic environment. With the cooperatives, many members from different field of work or experience come together to make a creative and effective team to run a business. Therefore, this sector of community and worker owned cooperatives helps in reducing the unemployment of a country. The cooperatives, therefore increases the job security and provides a meaningful activity related to employment. Community and the cooperatives have the power to bring together a large number of people into a single group. Furthermore, working in cooperatives increase the job security as the management only cannot terminate any workers. The termination decision is a joint decision in case of a cooperative environment and thus it is needed to be agreed by all the members. Thus, the community and worker-owned co-operatives can be considered as a way for minimizing and reducing unemployment thereby providing opportunities for those who need it.

Community and Worker-Owned Cooperatives

The community and the worker owned cooperatives therefore indeed is a hope for empowerment and democratic practices. Apart from the Mandragon, success story of another cooperative can be cited. The Nanaimo’s Harmac mill was almost gone until its workers bought it themselves. It was the summer time of 2008 when the global economy was already on a brink of collapse. A number of British Columbian forest workers had already lost their jobs by that time. In such an environment, a group of unemployed mill workers scrounged up a certain amount of cash with an aim of rescuing a 50 year old Nanaimo pulp mill. Along with a contribution of $25,000 each and with the support of three local investment groups, the employees of this organization bough their mill back in order to save their jobs. This is a classic example of employee empowerment. At present the mill is operating in full capacity and the share prices of the employees have significantly increased as well. Thus, cooperation in business is needed in order to ensure employee satisfaction. Furthermore, with the cooperative business, the management has very little role to play. Since the production of the business mainly depends on the workers, it is possible source of employee satisfaction and employee empowerment.

With employee empowerment, the concern associated with the income inequality can be addressed. Thus, it can be said that the community and worker-owned co-operatives is able to provide the best hope for the empowerment of the worker and the democratic practices.

Conclusion

The essay aimed in discussing whether the community and worker owned operatives provide best hope for the worker empowerment and demographic practices. The essay discussed the success Mandragon and Harmac Pacific that these two organizations could achieve in cooperative environment. The essay establishes the fact that community and worker cooperative sector plays a significantly important role in worker empowerment and democratic practices.

References

Better Work or ‘Ethical Fix’? Lessons from Cambodia’s Apparel Industry. (2019). Retrieved from https://column.global-labour-university.org/2013/11/better-work-or-ethical-fix-lessons-from.html#more

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Keith, N. Z. (2015). Engaging in social partnerships: Democratic practices for campus-community partnerships. Routledge.

Siddiqui, J., & Uddin, S. (2016). Human rights disasters, corporate accountability and the state: Lessons learned from Rana Plaza. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 29(4), 679-704.

Spencer, B., & Kelly, J. (2013). Work and learning. Toronto: Thompson Educational Pub.

Williams, R. C. (2016). The cooperative movement: Globalization from below. Routledge.

Zeuli, K. (2016). The evolution of the cooperative model. In Cooperatives and local development: Theory and applications for the 21st century (pp. 64-81). Routledge.

Bekkers, V., Dijkstra, G., & Fenger, M. (2016). Governance and the democratic deficit: assessing the democratic legitimacy of governance practices. Routledge.

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Sinkovics, N., Hoque, S. F., & Sinkovics, R. R. (2016). Rana Plaza collapse aftermath: are CSR compliance and auditing pressures effective?. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 29(4), 617-649.